MATLAB: Do I see the error “Something Unexpected Occurred” when installing MATLAB or another MathWorks Product

Question

Why do I see the error "Something Unexpected Occurred" when installing MATLAB or another MathWorks product?

Answer 1

This is a generic error message displayed when installing MathWorks products. It mainly occurs when installing either additional toolboxes or support packages from the Add-Ons Explorer.

If you are receiving this error while installing additional toolboxes from the Add-Ons Explorer

This error is typically  caused by a lack of permissions on the Add-On Explorer installer; the Add-Ons Explorer inherits the permissions of the MATLAB session. To resolve the error, try running MATLAB with elevated permissions and reattempt the installation once more.  

If the issue persists, you may install the toolbox with the MathWorks Installer.  The MathWorks Installer may bypass the issue causing the error message or provide more troubleshooting information on the error if the installation happens to fail again. 

Note: You are not required to reinstall MATLAB when installing additional toolboxes with the MathWorks Installer.

For more information on installing an additional toolbox to an already existing MATLAB installation, please refer to the following article:

How do I install additional toolboxes into an existing installation of MATLAB?

If you are receiving this error while installing a Support Package

When installing a support package, the error message is typically caused by a connection error, a permissions related issue, or a corrupted installation. 

1) Please attempt to resolve the error by starting MATLAB with elevated privileges to resolve any permissions issues.

2) You may try an offline installation of the support package; an offline installation may bypass any connection errors.  For information on performing an offline installation, please refer to the following article:

How do I Download and Install a Support Package on an Offline Machine?

3) You may perform a clean installation of the support packages. To do this, follow these steps:

How do I perform a clean re-installation of a Support Package?

If you are receiving this error when installing any support package in MATLAB R2016b, please refer to the following bug report: 

www.mathworks.com/support/bugreports/1507667

Contact Us

If you are still experiencing this error after trying the above or you are receiving the error while installing MATLAB, please contact MathWorks support and attach your MATLAB installation log file. For more information on locating your installation log file, please refer to the following:

Where are the MATLAB installation log files located?